


In the Aftermath

by giddyOctopus



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Destruction, Gen, Orphans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-11
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-15 09:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1300507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/giddyOctopus/pseuds/giddyOctopus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A wandering child in the aftermath of a Kaiju attack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> We have stories about almost everything in this fandom, but despite the amount of death and destruction in this movie, I have yet to have found a story about unrelated characters and how their lives got screwed up. So I made one.

The world was dust. Dust- an overarching swirling landscape of sickly tan dust, with pockets of inky, suffocating black. As she crested a hill, the dust began to abate, granting a horrifying sight of the fallen beast, with blue liquid dripping down its thick hide, it’s clawed hands still curved up a little ways from its torso, like it was still trying to bat away the jets attacking it with missiles.  
She shuddered into her green parka, and backed away from the Kaiju, trying to get back into the safety of the world of dust. But that, too, left her, and she was struck with the sheer amount of destruction around her- the streets torn up, the glass buildings shattered and destroyed by the monster’s shoulder spikes. She shouldn’t have been so shocked, she was there when it happened-right next to the damned thing when it was finally taken down by a Jaeger- which she later learned was named Lucky Seven, piloted by Hercules and Scott Hansen.  
She was about to turn, to leave this destruction behind and maybe find help (the red cross perhaps?)when her attention was caught by a thin wail, so quiet it barely cut the silence. She hurried towards the wail, dismayed to find it came from beneath a slab of concrete as she surveyed her cut and bruised hands. But she had seen too much death today, and she’d be damned if she was going to let another die.  
She started out by trying to lift the concrete outright, which yielded nothing but a sore body and damaged hands. So she found a piece of rebar just lying in the middle of the street, and pushed and pulled and made a small opening in the pile, into which she cried “Are you in there?” She had no idea who she was talking to. “I’m trying to get you out, ok? Can you make your way up here?” She had no idea how long she’d been yelling encouragement into the hole, when a small girl with mussed brown curls and a split lip climbed unsteadily out of the hole, and sat there in the street staring at her rescuer.  
She let the concrete drop, and carefully sat in front of the child, so she was looking into her huge dark eyes.  
“Hello. My name is Charlotte, can you tell me yours?”  
The child blinked, and sat there long enough that Charlotte began to believe that she hadn’t heard her. Then she opened her tiny mouth.  
“‘m Leah.” The child-Leah- said in a tone that sounded like she usually was behind her mother’s legs when she introduced herself.  
“Hello Leah. Do you know where your parents are?” Leah pointed, and as Charlotte followed the direction, her heart dropped and she felt overwhelming sadness. The place Leah had pointed to was, for lack of a technical term, flattened. Crushed. Decimated. No survivors were under there, for certain, because Charlotte had seen the Kaiju’s foot land directly on it. She turned back to the small child, and sighed. She was probably cold.  
Charlotte shrugged out of her parka, and gently wrapped it around Leah’ s shoulders, effectively blocking her view of her parents’ final resting place.  
“Maybe they’re at a Red Cross camp. Do you want me to carry you? Or would you rather walk?”  
The child worldlessly held her arms up to Charlotte, who lifted her up. She adjusted herself in Charlotte’s arms until she was comfortable, and the two orphans -17 and 7- started off to a refugee camp.


End file.
